XXIX.] 



AM BELIEVED TO BE A LUNATIC. 



385 



We passed throiigli jungle with many villages — in one of 

 which smiths were nsing hammers with handles, the first I 

 had seen in Africa, except those for making bark-cloth — and 

 then proceeded along a valley by the source of the Lumeji, 

 which wells up in a circular basin about sixty feet in diameter, 

 and is at its birth a stream fully six feet wide and four deep. 



Climbing a steep hill, we found ourselves on a large plain, 

 and shortly afterward saw a caravan 

 approaching, I pressed on, anxious 

 to ascertain whether this was the 

 party of the reported white trader; 

 but found that it was a caravan jour- 

 neying to Katanga under charge of 

 a slave of Silva Porto, a merchant at 

 Benguela, who is known to geogra- 

 phers by his travels in company with 

 Syde ibn Habib in 1852-'54. • 



The slave in charge spoke Portu- 

 guese, but could give me no news. 

 He was greatly astonished at seeing 

 me, and asked where I had come 

 from, when some of Alvez's people "^ 

 replied that they had discovered me 

 " walking about in Warua." 



He then inquired what I was do- 

 ing. " Did I trade in ivory f "No." 

 "In slaves?" "No." "In wax?" "No?" " In india-nibber ?" 

 " No." " Then what the devil did I do ?" " Collect informa- 

 tion about the country." He looked at me a moment as if 

 fully convinced that I was a lunatic, and then went on his way 

 in amazement. 



From the next camp Alvez dispatched people to his settle- 

 ment at Bihe, to fetch cloth to pay the ferry across the Kwanza, 

 and I took the opportunity to forward maps and letters, hoping 

 they might reach the coast before me. 



We had five very stiff marches before reaching the village of 

 Kanyumba, the chief of Kimbandi, a small country lying be- 

 tween Kibokwe and Bihe. On our journey we met many small 

 parties of Bih^ people buying bees-wax, and a large caravan, 



September, 

 1875. 



SHAM DEVIL. 



